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024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
From the National Park Service website:
"Pack a lunch and head to the picnic area after spending the morning in the park. Or fire up one of the charcoal grills available for public use and plan a sunset cookout and stay to watch the stars. Be sure to [ask at] the front desk [about] any surf or weather hazards . . .
"Tables are open to everyone and ... may not be reserved. The use of umbrellas, tarps and such equipment [is] not permitted in order to preserve the natural landscape."
Note: this NPS website is almost insulting in how badly written it can be. For example, In old Hawaii, you had broken a law the penalty was death. This is immediately followed by, Perhaps you had . . . eaten forbidden forbidden. I tried to use the site's "contact us" link -- but got a reply saying the address was nonexistent.
024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
I went back to Jubilee Square in Leicester city centre this afternoon to photograph some more recently-acquired diecast vehicles.
These are the vehicles of Matchbox's Autobahn Express V five-pack, which I found in my local Morrisons yesterday, at long last.
They are, in order from left to right:
2021 Audi e-tron - This Matchbox debuted a couple of years ago but has until now for some reason completely missed the UK. The one in the multipack originally carried the livery of the German Polizei (police), and, to their credit, Matchbox put the tampo on all four sides of the car. However, the lack of a plain-coloured e-tron in my collection meant only one thing: the police markings had to go, courtesy of a whiteboard marker. Sorry, guys...
2006 Porsche 911 997 GT3 - my second example of this casting (the first being a red mainline single from late last year), this time in brown... which is a bit of a weird colour for a Porsche, but hey, ho.
2019 Fiat 500 Turbo - The ICE-powered version of the popular Fiat 500, in production since the mid-2000s over a single generation, has been discontinued as of this year. This 500 Turbo has come out in a strange but likeable shade of silverish-green. Definitely not German, though.
1965 Alfa-Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA - Lovely-looking Italian coupé in a gorgeous shade of blue - but definitely not German either!
VW T3 Transporter Crew Cab - This utilitarian vehicle originally came in a livery for what I can only assume is a vehicle recovery service: Strassendienst (Road Service). Like the e-tron, the T3 has also had the side tampo removed as well as some on the front. However, I also added detailing to the rear that was nonexistent as original. Without the majority of the side tampo, the T3 looks reminiscent of a danfo (a type of small minibus commonly found in Lagos, the former capital of and largest city in Nigeria).
I went out with Matty to shoot some photos for an interview. We wanted to do something different, so we tried to incorporate Matty's love of the outdoors and his creativity into skating nonexistent "spots".
Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.
Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov
024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
Just a selfie of me enjoying another beautiful sunset display tonight after work... Rain may be nonexistent but at least nature still provides these fiery sunset displays for us to enjoy! Pic taken from by the 900 McCarthy Blvd building around Milpitas, CA. This was just a minute or so away from my work. (Thursday around sunset, December 3, 2020; 4:57 p.m.)
*“I watched the sunset last night. And given the utter brilliance of it, I likely sat in the company of thousands who found themselves awash in its blaze of colors as well. But sadly, it is just as likely that I was surrounded by thousands of others who never saw the colors because they were awash in lesser things. And I realized that far too often I am in the company of those people. Therefore, I’ll be sitting outside tonight.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough.
Vintage West Bend metal salt and pepper shakers. Pre-owned, well used and vintage 1950's. The graphics are faded on the pepper and almost nonexistent on the salt. There are lots of scratches and scuffs. The top is missing paint. The bottom reads West Bend Made in the USA. They measure approximately 4 inches high and 2.5 inches in diameter.
024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
Leeville, Louisiana
on Bayou LaFourche
LaFourche Parish
Leeville was settled by flood victims. On October 1, 1893, a hurricane wiped out the area's main settlement, Caminadaville, which sat on a spit of land bordered on three sides by the Gulf and on the fourth by swamp. Nearly half of Caminadaville's inhabitants perished in the storm, most by drowning, some when the buildings they had taken refuge in collapsed.
Survivors sailed up the bayou in their damaged canots and began buying land from an orange-grower named Peter Lee, who was selling plots for $12.50 each. For sixteen years, they fished, planted rice, and held fais do-do dancing parties in homes with covered verandas.
Then, in 1909, the Leeville Hurricane struck. (A contemporary newspaper account described survivors of that storm subsisting on drowned rabbit.) Six years later, a third hurricane forced residents to flee north once more. According to local legend, the storm surge carried one house from Leeville nine miles inland. The owner simply bought the plot underneath it and moved back in.
In the nineteen-thirties, Leeville rebounded briefly. Oil was discovered in the area, and by the end of the decade there were ninety-eight producing wells in town. The pay was good and regulation nonexistent. Blowouts routinely rained sulfur and brine onto the houses, into the cisterns, over the trees. Tin roofs corroded and vegetable gardens shrivelled up. When the wells ran dry, oil production moved offshore and Leeville was again deserted.
There were no more jobs, and the town itself had begun to wash away. Where once men in straw hats picked oranges and harvested rice, today there is mostly open water.
from: www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-15339115_ITM
Dixie doesn't have a flickr, but still wanted to do this, so I'm posting it on mine for her. You can see mine here.
Here's what you do:
Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search, using only the first page, choose your favorite image, copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows, or the reverse).
The questions:
1. What is your first name? dixie (this picture didn't show up in the mosaic because the person who posted it "opted of of BigHugeLabs.com"
2. What is your favorite food? grilled salmon
3. What high school did you attend? Newberry High School
4. What is your favorite color? dark green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Carrie Underwood
6. Favorite drink? Fiji water
7. Dream vacation? New York City
8. Favorite dessert? cheesecake
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? baseball player
10.What do you love most in life? music
11. One word to describe you? indecisive
12. Your Flickr name? nonexistent
Links to the actual pics:
1. Dixie Fried Chicken Restaurant 1960's, 2. Hey... are you going to eat that????, 3. Water Tower in Newberry FL, 4. A TRIBUTE TO A DEAR FRIEND. (KILKENNY, IRELAND), 5. Carrie Underwood, 6. Capture the sun, 7. manhattan memorial lights, 8. Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with Raspberries, 9. Take me Out., 10. For the Love of Music, 11. 118/365 ROYGBI... I don't do Violet, 12. The Nonexistent
Orchid cactus flower -- experimenting at f/1.2 with a vintage Nikon 50mm lens. The sharpness improves if stopped down to f/2 or 2.8, but I kind of like the dreamy effect and almost nonexistent depth of field of this super-fast lens wide open.
Triple-decker bike parking by Amsterdam Centraal station.
Bikes are huge in Holland. HUGE. And you know what else is huge in Holland? Dutch people. They average like six feet tall, including the women. Consequently, Dutch bikes are very tall, and not made with short Asian people in mind. Even with the seat at the most compressed position, I would stand on my very tippy-toes on one foot and still not be able to touch my other foot to the floor. This would contribute to my crashing the bike twice in a 24-hour period. On our very last day in Holland, I got a very lovely fist-sized bruise when two cyclists cut me off and I crashed knee-first into a concrete lamppost. I'm sure it didn't help that I was desperately trying to brake with nonexistent imaginary hand-brakes on the bike, since Dutch bikes have backpedal brakes.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Leefort Cemetery (seen sinking into the water)
Leeville, Louisiana
on Bayou LaFourche
LaFourche Parish
Some of the greatest fishing is right here.
Leeville was settled by flood victims. On October 1, 1893, a hurricane wiped out the area's main settlement, Caminadaville, which sat on a spit of land bordered on three sides by the Gulf and on the fourth by swamp. Nearly half of Caminadaville's inhabitants perished in the storm, most by drowning, some when the buildings they had taken refuge in collapsed.
Survivors sailed up the bayou in their damaged canots and began buying land from an orange-grower named Peter Lee, who was selling plots for $12.50 each. For sixteen years, they fished, planted rice, and held fais do-do dancing parties in homes with covered verandas.
Then, in 1909, the Leeville Hurricane struck. (A contemporary newspaper account described survivors of that storm subsisting on drowned rabbit.) Six years later, a third hurricane forced residents to flee north once more. According to local legend, the storm surge carried one house from Leeville nine miles inland. The owner simply bought the plot underneath it and moved back in.
In the nineteen-thirties, Leeville rebounded briefly. Oil was discovered in the area, and by the end of the decade there were ninety-eight producing wells in town. The pay was good and regulation nonexistent. Blowouts routinely rained sulfur and brine onto the houses, into the cisterns, over the trees. Tin roofs corroded and vegetable gardens shrivelled up. When the wells ran dry, oil production moved offshore and Leeville was again deserted.
There were no more jobs, and the town itself had begun to wash away. Where once men in straw hats picked oranges and harvested rice, today there is mostly open water.
from: www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-15339115_ITM
this little stray managed to get IN through an open window. He however didn't get OUT again. Only problem was that
this little stray managed to get IN through an open window. He however didn't get OUT again. Only problem was that he quite apparently shit his nonexistent trousers. Bastard!
I let him out after taking a few shots ...
Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.
Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov
Intellectual property (IP) is a widely accepted engine for prosperity in middle-income and developing countries. However, IP enforcement is lax or nonexistent in many middle-income countries, hampering incentives for innovation and broad based economic growth. An improved IP regime is not only good for the United States and its allies, but also for economic development more broadly. Join us for a discussion with a panel of experts on the critical role of IP as a missing link in the development conversation, and how the United States should combine its development, diplomacy, and trade policies to promote positive changes in the IP regimes of middle income and developing countries.
With its signature black body and white stripes is one of the most recognized and widely distributed mammals in the North American animal kingdom. With a varied omnivorous diet they will consume anything from insects and plant roots to garbage and are often considered pests in residential areas. Most predators avoid trying to consume skunks presumably out of fear of being sprayed... however, Great Horned Owls, who have poor to nonexistent sense of smell, frequently call the skunk dinner often. If ever encountered it is best to calmly and slowly back away, skunks usually only spray as a last resort and are much more afraid of you then you of them!
024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
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So the neat thing about this cave is that the lights are pretty nonexistent but they give you flashlights to use. So you don't realize that the bats are there until you actually see them with the flashlights. Pretty cool.
Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.
Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov
024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
When Louise Roe went looking for a dining room desk final yr, she began wherein quite a few us do—through noting what she favored greatly about the options she ought to locate, cobbling them into an ideal (but nonexistent) table layout in her head. “I had the photograph in my mind of the...
mediafocus.biz/how-blogger-louise-roe-saved-thousands-on-...
I'm gobsmacked by several things here. First, the light was nonexistent. Yet the Sony A7RII performed extremely well at incredibly high ISO. Second, using knowledge developed around a digital Zone System, I knew precisely where I wanted the tonal values and was able to place them accordingly. Third, I am happy to confirm the dynamic range of the sensor extends usefully to below Zone 0 (Zone -2!), even at such high ISO settings. Fourth, 1950s German optics can do the trick. These images were made using a triplet wide angle. Who would design such a thing and make it work? Micro-contrast is something to be seen, otherwise you wouldn't believe it.
meow.
+ whatever sound manatees make
(Uhh my supply of rubber bands is sort of nonexistent..random green rubber band would have to do.)
A slightly early Independence Day (Fourth of July) fireworks show over Lake Monona in the heart of the Wisconsin capital.
* Fireworks pictures in a sense are double exposures, at least multiple exposures.
* My ISO was set at 100. Nothing higher is needed or even desirable.
* White balance set to auto because in raw capture it does not matter.
* The technique used (and it's an old one) was to hold the shutter open for 10, 20, or 30 seconds at a time.
* The aperture is adjusted in the opposite direction to keep the exposure uniform. In this case I found that 10 seconds at f/8 worked well. 30 seconds at f/16 captured more bursts, but if the action was very heavy then too many bursts made for a busy, messy picture. I had to keep changing the settings.
* The camera was in full manual mode (otherwise it would change the exposure and focus).
* Because the display was 2 miles away the camera only needed to be focused at infinity.
* Solidly mounted on a sturdy tripod and tripped with an electronic cable release to insure there is no camera movement.
* Vibration reduction turned off (otherwise the VR would "hunt" for nonexistent movement and smear the shot). I nearly forgot this but I made a couple of test exposures early on and realized immediately that they were smeared due to the VR.
* I also turned off the Long Exposure Noise Reduction when I realized that it was doubling the time for the picture to load, and I knew I could minimize any noise in Lightroom. As it turned out little noise reduction was necessary beyond the standard.
* I worked in live view and kept the auto review on for two seconds for each shot to insure that I was getting what I thought I was getting. It’s enormously reassuring!
* With the shutter open for longer periods, more individual bursts are recorded on each frame. You have to shoot a lot of frames and hope to luck out. There is no way to plan it. You open the shutter, the stuff goes up, at the end of the time the shutter closes and you've got what you've got. I think I made about 75 exposures to get 19 that were good. The rest were trashed.
* Despite some 75 extended exposures, live view, and constant instant reviews, the battery at the end of 45 minutes of fireworks still had 60% charge. Turning off the noise reduction undoubtedly helped, plus made the shoot more efficient; no waiting.
Ready Or Not, Jesus Is Coming
Signage 12th Street and Airport Blvd. Austin Tx
The church is no longer there.
For some reason, the mood here reminds me of some nonexistent scene in the Wizard of Oz.
Note: Don't really like posting "duplicate" images on my stream, but I just really like this one. ^_^
Chimney Rock Mountain Overlook - George Washington National Forest, Blue Ridge Pkwy, Buena Vista, Virginia
Captured from a scant elevation of 2,485 feet, the east coast mountains of the Appalachians have a whole different look than the Rockies, and are actually a bit more difficult to capture with all the overlapping colors and layers of haze that's pretty much nonexistent at 10,000 feet.
Note: A two shot composite captured with my 28 - 135 mm "Kit" lens
* The Big Huge Labs View On Black algorithm allows the use of browser magnification to magnify images on the screen (i.e. the [Ctrl]+[+] key combination will make the image larger,
and [Ctrl]+[-] will reduce the displayed image size when used with Microsoft browsers).
However, since the browser magnification function is working with the "Large" size file (not the "Original" full resolution file) the technique does not increase resolution, and the image will degrade quickly if you "pump it up" too much!
A relatively recently described species, the Talladega Seal Salamander lives in flowing rocky streams of the Georgia Piedmont and Talladega Mountains. This species was once considered Desmognathus monticola but can be distinguished by the almost nonexistent pattern in adults.
i was hoping for a brilliant sunset tonight. i was lucky and got fog and mist instead. it looks like snowflakes.
this is a ramp that leads to the nonexistent second story which is filled with birds.
Intellectual property (IP) is a widely accepted engine for prosperity in middle-income and developing countries. However, IP enforcement is lax or nonexistent in many middle-income countries, hampering incentives for innovation and broad based economic growth. An improved IP regime is not only good for the United States and its allies, but also for economic development more broadly. Join us for a discussion with a panel of experts on the critical role of IP as a missing link in the development conversation, and how the United States should combine its development, diplomacy, and trade policies to promote positive changes in the IP regimes of middle income and developing countries.
Nicely posing Willow Flycatcher, low on the trees/shrubs right over the water. While no doubt one or more of the "oh an empid buzzed by" birds I've seen in my life were this species - they're common around here - this is the first one I was able to identify, so a lifer ;-)
I had this photo shoot (and a following less productive one) with this bird, while in one of the gazebos. Shortly after the bird vacated, we had an unexpected rain squall (good timing, being in the roofed gazebo.) Two other birds and I had a nice chat while it rained about what we had seen, and they helped me ID this empid. Around here, that much white beneath combined with the almost-nonexistent eye ring is a good clue for Willow, it's one of the standard empids here that had been reported recently on social media, and Sibley indicates that the 'low above water' behavior is typical for this species. So many other empids do treetops.
Intellectual property (IP) is a widely accepted engine for prosperity in middle-income and developing countries. However, IP enforcement is lax or nonexistent in many middle-income countries, hampering incentives for innovation and broad based economic growth. An improved IP regime is not only good for the United States and its allies, but also for economic development more broadly. Join us for a discussion with a panel of experts on the critical role of IP as a missing link in the development conversation, and how the United States should combine its development, diplomacy, and trade policies to promote positive changes in the IP regimes of middle income and developing countries.
Asperula purpurea (L.) Ehrend, syn.: Galium purpureum L.
Purple Woodruff, DE: Purpur Meier, Purpur Meister
Slo.: škrlatna perla, škrlatna lakota
Dat.: July 30. 2016
Lat.: 46.35803Long.: 13.70286
Code: Bot_993/2016_DSC4167
Habitat: an opening in mixed Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies wood; clear cut under (local) power lines, almost flat terrain; calcareous, skeletal, colluvial ground; full sun, warm and dry place; elevation 545 m (1.790 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region.
Substratum: soil.
Place: Lower Trenta valley, between villages Soča and Trenta, right bank of river Soča; near Matevž farmhouse, above regional road Bovec Vršič, East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC
Comment: Few plants known to me are more difficult to be photographed in the field as Asperula purpurea. It is small, very tender and its flowers have not much more than 1 mm in diameter. Its leaves can be less than 1 cm long and only a fraction of mm wide. Apparently, when it grows on sunny places it is specially small and tender. So, it shakes restlessly even if there is no observable wind. At the same time only macro photography can show its details. Since it is widely branched in all directions one would need considerable depth of field for sharp pictures. This is of cause nonexistent with macro work. Also focus stacking technique cannot be used, because the plant is in motion all the time.
This South European plant growing also on Balkan Peninsula, Carpathians and Apennines originally belonged to Galium genus, but was later repositioned to Asperula genus. All Asperula species growing in Slovenia are beautiful; however this beauty requires to be admired with a hand lens.
Ref.:
(1) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 348.
(2) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 762.
(3) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora für Österreich, Liechtenstein und Südtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 702.
(4) A. Martinči et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnična Založba Slovenije (2007), p 521.
CCTV Chinese Restaurant, White Rock, B.C. It was kind of a dumpling extravaganza. ;) Also with the flounder and seawater tofu soup that I think is one of the best seafood soups I've ever had. In the foreground, something pretty cutting-edge: a tossed salad. Uncooked green salads are pretty scarce on traditional Chinese menus. Nonexistent, actually.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build Curtiss P-40 fighters under license for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Rather than build an old design from another company, North American Aviation proposed the design and production of a more modern fighter. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October.
The Mustang was originally designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which, in its earlier variants, had limited high-altitude performance. It was first flown operationally by the RAF as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber (Mustang Mk I). Production of the P-51B/C began at North American's Inglewood California plant in June 1943 and P-51s started to become available to the 8th and 9th Air Forces in the winter of 1943–1944. The addition of the Rolls-Royce Merlin to the P-51B/C model transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, allowing the aircraft to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters. Among the almost 4.000 Mustangs of this variant built a quarter was supplied under Lend-Lease to the RAF as the Mustang Mk III. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the two-speed, two-stage-supercharged Merlin 66, and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns.
The P-51 offered an excellent performance, but North American kept trying to improve, and developed a number of lightweight versions. The lightweight Mustangs had a new wing design and airfoils designed to give less drag than the previous NAA/NACA 45-100. In addition, the planform was a simple trapezoid, with no leading-edge extension at the root.
In 1943, North American submitted a proposal to redesign the P-51D as model NA-104, from an enquiry by the USAAF as to why British aircraft were lighter than American ones. NAA engineers had examined the various components and equipment fitted to Spitfires, and through thorough inspection of airframes and construction plans NAA found that British load factors were less than American ones, and working to the lower load factors helped the design team reduce structural weight wherever possible. Exploiting the structural potential and lightening or reducing other equipment, the NA-104’s revised design was in total some 1,600 lb (730 kg) lighter than the P-51D. Modifications to save weight and improve performance included a thinner laminar flow wing, streamlining changes to the cowling, a simplified undercarriage with smaller wheels and disc brakes (necessitated by the thinner wings), a different canopy, and an armament of only four 0.5” Brownings, even though the ammunition supply was changed to 400 rounds per gun.
The lightweight NA-104 was powered by the new V-1650-9 engine, a redesigned "slimline" version of the Merlin 100-series. The engine’s design was modified to decrease frontal area to a minimum and was the first Merlin series to use down-draught induction systems. The coolant pump was moved from the bottom of the engine to the starboard side, and the engine featured a two-speed, two-stage supercharger and an S.U. injection carburetor. The V-1650-9 not only delivered an increased constant output of 1,380 hp (1,030 kW), it also featured a water-methanol injection that could temporarily boost the engine’s emergency power to 2,218 hp (1.655 kW). The exhaust arrangement was revised, too, exploiting the engine’s residual thrust to gain even more speed. An “uncuffed” three-blade Aeroproducts propeller unit with deeper blades was fitted, to better cope with the higher power output and the higher blade speeds
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Unlike later lightweight Mustang versions/prototypes the NA-104‘s ventral radiator fairing remained the same shape and size, just as the main landing gear and its covers, both were, despite improved designs on the prototyoe workbench, retained to promote a quick production introduction. The former V-1650-7’s carburetor chin intake was relocated into the right wing’s root, and the cowling was modified and streamlined. The modified nose section was slightly longer than on previous Mustang versions, and to compensate for a resulting slight center of gravity shift forward the rear fuselage was slightly extended with a plug in the rear fuselage, just front of the tail surfaces, what increased the NA-104’s overall length by ~10 inch. As a side effect the longitudinal stability improved, so that the NA-104 did not require the stabilizing fin fillet that had been introduced on the P-51D and some late production P-51B/Cs, too.
In test flights, the NA-104, with optimized fuel load and a highly polished finish, achieved 491 mph (790 km/h) at 21,000 ft (6,400 m). In September 1944 the NA-104 was accepted by the USAAF as a high-performance interceptor under the designation P-51E. 500 aircraft were ordered, primarily for operations in Europe, specifically for the 8th and 9th Air Force, to protect the Allied airfields in Great Britain and as long-range escort fighters for Allied bomber raids against Germany. An option for 1.000 more was signed, too, to be delivered from August 1945.
The first P-51Es arrived in Great Britain in January 1945. However, large-scale combat between 8th Fighter Command and the Luftwaffe interceptor force had become virtually nonexistent after 28 May 1944 but, in August, contact had been made for the first time with both rocket-propelled and jet-propelled interceptors. While themselves a harbinger of a tactical change by the Luftwaffe, the contacts also indicated that the Germans were husbanding their fighter aircraft for sporadic reaction against Allied bomber attacks.
Operational tasks for the USAAFs P-51Es included the support of bomber attacks against German ground transportation during the Allied counter-offensive in the Ardennes in early 1945, strafing ground targets daily. However, on 14 January, strategic bombing resumed with attacks on oil installations near Berlin, and Mustangs were frequently tasked with protecting B-17s, employing a variation of the escort tactic called the "Zemke Fan", designed to lure in interceptors.
The Luftwaffe’s Jagdverbände, severely depleted, turned to jet interceptions beginning 9 February 1945 in an attempt to stop the onslaught of Allied heavy bombers. The Allies countered by flying combat air patrol missions over German airfields, intercepting Me 262s and Ar 234s as they took off and landed, the moment when these fast aircraft were most vulnerable. The tactic resulted in increasing numbers of jets shot down and controlled the dangerous situation, particularly as the amount of German-controlled territory shrank daily.
Another threat was the V-1 flying bomb attacks that had begun in mid-June 1944. The only aircraft with the low-altitude speed to be effective against it was the Hawker Tempest, but by that time fewer than 30 Tempests were available, assigned to No. 150 Wing RAF. Early attempts to intercept and destroy V-1s often failed, but improved techniques soon emerged. These included using the airflow over an interceptor's wing to raise one wing of the V-1, by sliding the wingtip to within 6 in (15 cm) of the lower surface of the V-1's wing. If properly executed, this maneuver would tip the V-1's wing up, over-riding the gyro and sending the V-1 into an out-of-control dive. At least sixteen V-1s were destroyed this way, the first by a P-51 piloted by Major R. E. Turner of 356th Fighter Squadron on 18 June 1944. Once available, the USAAF’s P-51Es were frequently assigned to V-1 interception duties over the Channel and the southern coast of England, alleviating RAF units.
However, with the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945 the P-51E contract was cancelled, as well as the option for more aircraft. Altogether only 363 lightweight P-51Es were completed and reached frontline units, exclusively operating with the 8th and 9th Fighter Command.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 33 ft 3 in (10,15 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 0 in (11,28 m)
Height: 13 ft 4½ in (4,08 m)
Wing area: 234 sq ft (21,81 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 66(2)-215
Empty weight: 5,792 lb (2.630 kg)
Loaded weight: 7,268 lb (3.300 kg)
Max. take-off weight: 9,559 lb (4.340 kg)
Maximum fuel capacity: 419 US gal (349 imp gal; 1,590 l)
Powerplant:
1× Packard V-1650-9 liquid-cooled V-12 with 2-stage intercooled supercharger,
delivering 1,380 hp (1,030 kW), 2,218 hp (1,655 kW) WEP with Water methanol injection,
driving a Hamilton Standard constant-speed, variable-pitch three blade propeller with
a 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m) diameter
Performance:
Maximum speed: 472 mph (760 km/h; 410 kn) at 21,200 ft (6,500 m)
Cruise speed: 362 mph (315 kn, 580 km/h)
Stall speed: 100 mph (87 kn, 160 km/h)
Range: 1,650 mi (1,434 nmi, 2,755 km) with external tanks
Service ceiling: 41,900 ft (12,800 m)
Rate of climb: 3,200 ft/min (16.3 m/s)
Wing loading: 39 lb/sqft (192 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.18 hp/lb (300 W/kg)
Lift-to-drag ratio: 14.6
Recommended Mach limit 0.8
Armament:
4× 0.50 caliber (12.7mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns with 400 RPG
A pair of underwing hardpoints for a pair of drop tanks
or bombs of 100 lb (45 kg), 250 lb (113 kg) or 500 lb (226 kg) caliber
The kit and its assembly:
A project that was more complex than obvious at first glance. The plan was to create a “missing link” between the WWII P-51D and its lightweight sibling P-51H, which came too late in WWII to take seriously part in any combat. There actually were some “interim” designs, which paved the way (the F, G and J models), with lightweight hulls or different engines. My plan was to adopt some details of these aircraft to create the fictional P-51E.
For a look that subtly differs from the well-known P-51D I decided light-headedly to bash two Academy models together: a P-51D hull, mixed with the wings and tail from a P-51B/C kit, plus some inter-kit and external donors. What sounds simple turned out to be a major surgery task, though, because both kits are totally different, produced with individual moulds and few interchangeable parts! Even details which you’d expect to me identical (e. g. wing tip and tail shape) differ markedly.
For the P-51E kitbash the fuselage with cockpit, engine and radiator bath was taken from the P-51D, while the tail and the wings were taken from the P-51B/C, because they were slightly bigger, “edgier”, lacked the fin fillet and featured only four machine guns in the wings. Mating these parts called for many adaptations and massive PSR, though. To change the look further I removed the small wing leading edge extensions, for a completely straight edge, and the cowling was changed to look like a mix of the P-51F and J prototypes. The carburetor intake disappeared and a part of the P-51D spinner was used to extend the fuselage a little. A completely new three-blade propeller was scratched, using a Yokosuka D4Y spinner, a piece from an ESCI Ka-34 Hokum main rotor, and clipped blades from a Hasegawa F5U. A styrene tube was added to hold the propeller’s new metal axis. To compensate for the longer nose the rear fuselage a 2mm section of the P-51D hull was retained in front of the transplanted P-51B/C tail (which is a separate hull section, the -D has an integral tail).
The original exhausts were replaced with resin aftermarket pieces for P-400 Airacobra from Quickboost - for which the nose extension paid out, because the V-1710 exhaust arrangement is longer than the Merlin's.
Painting and markings:
I wanted a typical, potentially colorful USAAF livery from early 1945 for this what-if aircraft model. This meant that the aircraft would have a NMF livery, and Invasion Stripes or other ID markings were already removed or not applied to new aircraft anymore. Camouflage had been omitted from 1945, too. As squadron markings I went for the 357th FG red-and-yellow nose markings; these came with Academy’s P-51B/C kit, but I replaced them with decals from a Mistercraft/Intech kit from The Stash™ because their shape was simpler and would (probably) better match the modified lower nose. Searching for later P-51Ds of this group revealed that the aircraft hardly carried any other colorful marking, though – just the tactical code, and maybe some personal markings.
To keep in style I adapted this basis, using a tone called “White Aluminum (RAL 9006)” from a Duplicolor rattle can as an overall basis, but added a thin red edge to the olive drab (Revell 46) anti-glare panel, created with generic decal stripes. The rudder as well as the wing tips were painted in red, an official 363rd FS ID marking, as a counterbalance to the prominent nose, too.
The propeller spinner was painted free-handedly, in an attempt to match the checker decal's colors. Some hull panels were painted in a darker shade of aluminum to make the model look mo0re lively, and some post-shading with Humbrol Matt Aluminum Metallizer was done to improve that effect, too. Cockpit and landing gear wells were painted in a bright green zinc chromate primer tone.
Decals and markings were puzzled together from various sources. Finding a suitable 'B6' code fpr the 363rd FS was tough, but I was eventually able to scratch it from 'P9' codes from two Academy P-47D kits/sheets! BTW, the horizontal bar above the aircraft's individual letter was a real world marking for a second aircraft that bore this tactical code within the unit. The nose art/tag was also donated from an Academy P-47, the yellow font matches the rest of the unit colors well.
The anti glare panel and the propeller blades received a matt varnish coat, while the rest of the hull was covered with a mix of matt and a little semi-gloss varnish - contemporary Mustang photos from 1945 suggest that, despite being bare metal, the aircraft were not polished or shiny at all, yet the aluminum would have some reflections. I think that the final overall finish looks quite good. As a final step I added some light soot stains behind the exhausts and the machine gun orifices, and dry-brushed some silver on edges/areas where paint could have flaked in real life. Not much, but it adds to the overall impression of a used aircraft.
A more demanding project than meets the eye. Bashing the two Mustang kits for a fictional new one might have been a smart idea, but it turned out to be a nightmare because the two 1:72 Mustand Academy kits are totally incompatible. Additionally, the mods I made are VERY subtle, it takes a keen eye to recognize the lengthened hull, the modfied cowling and the cleaner tail. The three-blade prop is the most obvious thing, and with it, from certain angles, the P-51E reminds somewhat of a Yak-9? Probably due to the intake-less cowling and the (for a Mustang) unusual prop? The livery looks plausible and colorful, though. :D
The County Durham Brewing Company's Extra Special Bitter. A real ale, which are hard enough to find even in Toronto, and nonexistent here in the suburbs, in York Region. It was good, of course.
Dora Keogh; Toronto, Ontario.